Tracee Ellis Ross recently took to her Instagram page to showcase the present she received from fellow actress Kerry Washington.
In the Nov. 12 post, Ross was seen posing in various locations in what appeared to be her home with a black personalized sweatshirt that listed the first names of Black women TV lawyers, including the 50-year-old’s “Girlfriends” character Joan Clayton.
The sweatshirt also featured other iconic characters such as Clair Huxtable of “The Cosby Show,” Maxine Shaw from “Living Single,” “Insecure” star Molly Carter, “How to Get Away with Murder” star Annalise Keating and Washington’s “Scandal” character Olivia Pope.
In addition to the images, Ross shouted out Washington for the gift and promoted the 45-year-old’s new legal drama Hulu’s “Reasonable Doubt.”
She wrote, “As a former Black Woman TV lawyer (Joan Carol Clayton, Esq), I have no objections! Shout out to my friend @kerrywashington for creating this cute sweatshirt celebrating #BlackWomenTVLawyers in honor of her legal drama @reasonabledoubthulu!”
Ross’ post comes a day after Washington revealed how the sweatshirt was created.
While welcoming Emayatzy Corinealdi’s “Reasonable Doubt” character Jax Stewart to the Black women TV lawyers club, Washington shared that “The Black Lawyers Podcast” created the shirt. The company’s purpose behind the shirt’s design is to support scholarships for Black law students worldwide.
Washington wrote in her caption, “Welcome to the club, Jax. #BlackWomenTVLawyers. This shirt was inspired by a design made by @TheBlackLawyersPodcast. Less than 2.5% of Lawyers are Black women, but they are working to change that! Check them out at TheBlackLawyers.com.”
In the past, Ross has shown appreciation to her hit series “Girlfriends” and her character Joan Clayton by sharing various throwbacks on her social media page.
In May 2022, Ross opened up about how she felt regarding the abrupt ending of “Girlfriends.” The hit show ran for eight seasons from 2000 to 2008 on UPN and followed the lives of four friends. “Girlfriends” starred Ross, Golden Brooks, Jill Marie Jones, Persia White and Reggie Hayes.
During an interview with Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Ross disclosed that during the series’ eighth and final season, no one knew that the show was being canceled because they still had 13 episodes to film.
Ross said, “We had 13 more episodes to do–we never did them. We didn’t have a wrap party. We didn’t know we were ending. The last moment wasn’t with all our writers and everybody. It was not sort of a ceremonial end.”
She added, while referencing a Writers Guild of America strike, “Our last episode that we shot was during the writers’ strike and I actually directed it. It was my first time directing. It was not fun because it was really bizarre, it was surreal. Um, but then we just kinda faded away.”
